Broomfield woman organizes community round table to address violence

Barbara Kelly invites members of the community to a discussion about community violence and what community members can do to reduce it at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library, 3 Community Park Road.

After watching endless news reports about the tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Barbara Kelly decided it was time to talk.

Kelly, a Broomfield resident, said she knows people are already talking about gun violence. She thinks an organized community discussion could help people build understanding and make the first few steps to doing something about it. The community forum will be 7 p.m. Thursday at the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library.

In wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and this summer's movie theater shooting in Aurora, Kelly said she couldn't sit by any longer.

"I am a mother, and I can't imagine losing a child. Because I can't imagine it, I want to lessen the possibility of it," she said.

Kelly invites community members, law enforcement, politicians and families to join the conversation, both to get issues out in the open and perhaps bridge gaps between people on opposite sides of the debate. She hopes the meeting will help spur action by brainstorming ideas and providing those ideas to lawmakers as state and federal governments assess gun laws and mental health resources.

The responsibility to do something does not just lie with lawmakers, she said.

"We cannot both venerate violence and expect to stop it. We, every individual as well as our society, have to recognize that our refusal to find better ways than force to deal with what we don't like has consequences," she said.

The first step is getting people together to have a conversation, she said. She is considering breaking participants into small groups and mixing together people on opposite sides of the debate.

"I hope it gets a little heated," she said, adding that her job as a middle school substitute teacher makes her well-suited to handling arguments. "But people in Broomfield are civilized, and I think they will listen to each other."

Kelly and others in the community are keeping a close eye on what could happen with state and federal regulations on guns, as well as ways to reform mental health care.

Broomfield Police Chief Tom Deland said the police department is keeping track of the debate.

"There is great concern (in the community) about what we can do to keep schools safe," he said.

Deland, the board president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, said he and other chiefs have been meeting to formulate ideas and discuss what could be fitting gun control and mental health care reforms for the state. It is too early in the game for the association to take a position on any one proposal, he said.

"We'll be working with legislators and the governor's office," he said.

Deland, who said he had not heard about Kelly's community meeting, said he believes the Broomfield Police Department is working closely with the school districts to do everything it can to protect children in their classrooms.

In October, Broomfield police stepped up its focus on school safety after 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway was found dead in a field in Arvada. Deland ordered increased police presence and patrols around all Broomfield schools until the suspect, Austin Sigg, was arrested a few weeks later.

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